Today's Brew looks at the approval rates of California’s local ballot bond and tax measures + analyzes Pivot County voter turnout in the March 10 presidential primary states.

Welcome to the Friday, March 13, Brew. Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day:

Approval rates of local bond and tax measures in California's March 3 election lowest in at least a decade
March 10 Democratic voter turnout in Pivot Counties trailed statewide turnout
What’s the Tea?

Approval rates of local bond and tax measures in California's March 3 election lowest in at least a decade

Our Elections team has finished crunching numbers from California's March 3 local ballot measure elections. Voters approved less than 42% of local bond measures in the 2020 primary. From 2008 to 2019, the average approval rate for local school bond measures in California was 75%.

The approval rate of local school bond revenue was significantly lower than in 2018. Voters approved 32% of bond revenue ($5.511 billion) in 2020, compared to 94% ($14.3 billion) 2018.

Of the 292 local measures on the March 3 ballot, voters approved at least 111 and defeated 146. The remaining measures are still too close to call.

The number of measures on the ballot was the most on a California primary date since at least 2010 and 134 more than in 2018.

236 (81%) were bond or tax measures, including:

121 local school bond measures (in total, $17.24 billion in proposed local school bonds)
54 parcel tax measures
45 sales tax measures
Seven hotel tax measures
Five city or county marijuana tax measures
Four city, county, or district bond measures

As of Monday, the approval rate of local parcel tax measures was 27.9 percentage points lower in 2020 compared to local parcel tax measure approval rates from 2003 to 2019. The approval rate of local sales tax measures decreased by 22.7 percentage points compared to local sales tax measure approval rates from 2014 to 2019.

To learn more about California’s local bond and tax measures, along with other California ballot measures click the link below.

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March 10 Democratic voter turnout in Pivot Counties trailed statewide turnout

Four of the six states that held presidential primaries on Tuesday contained Pivot Counties. Pivot counties are the 206 counties that voted twice for President Obama in 2008 and 2012 and then voted for President Trump in 2016. Here's how Democratic voter turnout this year compares to turnout in the 2016 Democratic presidential primaries.

Democratic voter turnout increased in Michigan’s 12 Pivot Counties by 28.7%. This was lower than the statewide increase of 31.5%. Sanders won nine of the 12 Pivot Counties in the 2016 Democratic primary. Biden won all 12 in 2020.
In Mississippi, turnout in the state’s two Pivot Counties was up 3.5%. This was less than the statewide increase of 15.8%. Hillary Clinton won both counties in 2016. Biden won them this year. Complete returns were not available for the other two states with Pivot Counties that held primary events on Tuesday: Washington and North Dakota. We'll run the numbers once they're available.

In 11 of the 12 states with full returns available, Democratic voter turnout in Pivot Counties was lower than it was statewide. New Hampshire is the only state so far where an increase in voter turnout in Pivot Counties (18.6%) exceeded that of non-Pivot Counties (17.7%).

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